Have you been wondering how to launch paid communities and courses? In this episode we talk about a process to find the best idea for your paid and online courses, how to test and validate it, and build your communities and courses as you go.

You might want to launch a paid community or course but only have a general idea of what to teach. Listen to this episode to get tips on how to find your idea and develop it into a successful online course.

Discover the Perfect Idea for Your Paid Online Communities and Courses

• Look to the questions that you are asked most by coworkers, clients, friends or in your community.
• Look for trends. Madalyn discusses how she picked up on the number of women she talked with who reported they had never done a live stream video. She launched the Video Like a Rockstar program to help them master the technology and overcome their fear.
• If you don’t already have a community to ask, join a group to see what others are talking about. You can also run a poll on Facebook or Twitter or search your niche on Quora see what questions people are asking. You can also read through complaints in your existing groups to see what questions and answers people have. 

Beta Test and Validate Your Pilot Program

• Test the idea by quickly launching a mastermind and ask people to validate it by charging a fee.
• It’s easy for someone to say they’re interested in what you want to offer, but not everyone will be interested enough to pay for it. You validate your ideas by charging a fee, stepping back and waiting to see what happens. 
• Charge a lower fee to validate the idea, ask for testimonials and most importantly, feedback. Be flexible when doing your pilot program and listen to your students.

Build Your Perfect Paid Online Communities and Courses as You Go

• If people want to continue beyond the initial offering, create a follow-up course or community that builds on the learning from the Beta launch.
• When you’re launching, it’s a lot of work on the front end and you’ll spend a lot of time building your course. The beauty is that if you’re going to continue the course in the future, or build upon it, you’ve already done all of the hard work.
• Poll students taking your course or students who have already completed your course what they would pay for it and let them guide you on pricing.

Repeat and Improve Your Paid Online Communities and Courses

• Learn as you go. Start the Mastermind again, then feed into the ongoing community. Make changes as needed, repeat and build as your community leads.
• Ask the community how they would like to proceed and grow. Listen and your students will help you.
• Look at the big picture. People may sign up in mass initially, but you need to build a solid program and keep adding to it to make it better. Eventually, it’ll become a sustainable income source.

Take Action

Go to our Facebook group and tell us what ideas you have for your own paid communities and courses. Let’s start a dialogue about your topic and get feedback from the group.

How to reach Kami:

If you’d like to learn more about Kami Huyse, visit her website at www.zoeticamedia.com. You can contact her by email at [email protected] or tweet to @kamichat.

How to reach Madalyn:

If you’d like to learn more about Madalyn Sklar, visit her website at www.madalynsklar.com. You can contact her by email at [email protected] or tweet to @MadalynSklar.

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